Background on Hong Kong and Fujian

About Hong Kong

Hong Kong plays a remarkable role as a place for multinational firms to access the strengths of the Greater-Pearl River Delta (PRD), China and the Asia Pacific region as a whole. In particular, its banking system, legal set-up, infrastructure and logistics are the top league by any standard. These advantages produce complementary strengths of Hong Kong and the rest of Pan-PRD by inputting professional knowledge, management skills and international experiences.

In 2008, Hong Kong’s GDP grew by 2.5% and reached USD 215.2 billion. The total value of trade in goods was USD 752.3 billion in 2008 and direct investment inflow was USD 55.9 billion in 2007. It has consistently retained its position as Asia’s second-largest destination for FDI after the Mainland.

Hong Kong is the preferred location in Asia for regional headquarters and offices. As of June 2008, a total of 3,882 overseas companies had regional operations in Hong Kong. This breaks down to 1,298 regional headquarters and 2,584 regional offices.

The implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central People’s Government further opens up new and exciting opportunities in the Mainland for both local and international companies and individual investors based in Hong Kong in the areas of trade in goods, trade in services, and trade and investment facilitation. It now provides preferential and accelerated market access to 40 key service sectors in the Mainland, as well as offering zero import tariffs on Hong Kong-made goods that meet the rules of origin.

About Fujian

Fujian is right at the juncture of China economically most developed areas: Yangtze River Delta to its north and Pearl River Delta to its south. By the end of 2008, 42,764 foreign invested enterprises were approved to set up in Fujian, and the actual utilized amount of foreign capital reached USD 84 billion. Fujian has developed three pillar industries, namely the electronic and information industry, the machine building industry and the petrol-chemical industry.The actual utilized amount of foreign capital of these three pillar industries totaled USD 4.2 billion, up by 30% over the same period last year.

As of December 2008, there are 10 Swedish companies in the Fujian province, with a contractual investment amount of USD 42.5729 million. These companies are engaged in business sectors like metallic and non-metallic mineral manufacturing, forestry, textile, machinery, wholesale & retail and electronics, etc.  Renowned enterprises like Sandvik have established their presence in Fujian.